HJC News

Why Not to Buy Fakes Part 7

This week we're going to focus on the former beasts of the Central, Chicago Blackhawks. Having 3 of the best players of the past decade in their respected positions in Kane, Toews, and Keith, along with 3 Stanley Cup wins and playoff appearances in every season from 2008-17 (likely going to end this year though), the Blackhawks have been a popular team for obvious reasons. Thus, they are the team that up until recently had the most fakes. Most of these were stock standard crappy quality fakes, usually with Stanley Cup Champions (not Finals) patches on them regardless of if they were a home, road, alternate, Winter Classic, Stadium Series, or even St. Patrick's Day!

The only jerseys amongst these I can maybe understand people considering buying fakes of were the 2009 Winter Classic/2009-11 alternates, as those to this day are exceedingly rare; not saying you should ever buy a fake of any jersey but at least I can understand the mindset of someone not willing to spend 400 bucks for something that at one point was $119.95 (yes, I can remember when Reebok Premier jerseys costed that in Canada).

However today, we're not going to look at these semi-rare jerseys, rather something special, in fact, something you can find for regular price on AHL Shop any time. To my knowledge Toews and Kane have never played for the Rockford IceHogs; Chicago's world famous, pig butt shoulder patch having AHL franchise, and personally one of my favourite AHL identities.

I didn't think AHL fakes would be a thing, but here we are.

Look at that collar! It reminds me of a bad dress shirt from 20 years ago, and if you've worn a regular Reebok jersey you'd know that the collar here is way too tight and way to high to be an authentic product. The material this jersey is made of is much too shiny and cheap to be an authentic product; again we see that raincoat like shine fakes are known to have. The arm stripes are too thin, as are the numbers on the sleeves. The classic cartoony IceHogs logo has had its blue muted and reds darkened, along with being made of a puffy/bloated material that looks off even upon cursory glance. The Pepsi advert, while accurate, is also a knock off, as AHL premier jerseys do not have adverts on them, only the game worn jerseys have ads, making this a jersey foul. On top of this, when Kane/Toews/Keith were at a point in their career to benefit from playing games in the AHL circa 2006-2008, the AHL still wore CCM 550 cut jerseys and Reebok Edge 1.0 jerseys with the Reebok Vector logo worn on Edge jerseys from 2006-11.

Teams like Rockford are the ones that are hurt the most from fake jerseys sales. Being an AHL franchise they rely a lot on online exposure and a local audience. Supporting minor league hockey is important to keep teams in their current location, and merchandise sales are a solid way to support a local franchise. Unlike an NHL team where they will sell thousands of jerseys because they have millions of fans worldwide, AHL teams have a much smaller audience, and smaller reach. Fake jersey dealers tend to focus on NHL teams, but when they do make minor league jerseys, double stay away from them!

We have another Chicago fake this week. I don't know about you, but I for one have very little desire to buy a replica practice jersey. Game worn? Sure why not! However to pay 70 bucks for a replica of a practice jersey that every team wears the exact same design of...no thanks. That's just me, some people buy them and that's fine, but for some reason someone somewhere bought a fake one and now we have loads of fakes.

Here's the worst one:

Oh boy, these are ROUGHT. The collar, reebok logos, pale logo...but then we look at the name on the back and the numbers. Wow those things look like a bee stung them. Look at the material on the name-bar! Just imagine not only buying a fake jersey, but an incredibly cheap jersey with no design on them that they likely paid close to the same for an authentic St. Pats practice jersey. Trust me, these things are ALWAYS available for MONTHS after March 16th and well into....September...

Why Not to Buy Fakes Part 7
Reviewed by winnipegjets96
on
February 07, 2018
Rating: 5